The past weekend was a great one. The festivities started with Middlebury's 10-6 victory over Bates. The weather was awful with a steady, cold rain, but field conditions were fine as we moved the game to Kohn Field (Astroturf). The 1st Q was slow to get started as they played a zone they had not played much previously and it took a while to figure out how to attack them. As the 2nd and 3rd Q unfolded the offense began to work more efficiently, moving the ball and cutting and playing with energy. In the meantime the defense, Eric Krieger in goal, and Brian McGregor facing off were all dominant. We knew going into the year the strength of the team would be defense, facing off and goaltending and that has been the case. Those strengths are a nice place to start as you know you have a chance going into every game. Ed Brown was particularly strong on defense and won the game ball for his efforts.

With the victory, the team ended the regular season undefeated in NESCAC, which gained us a bye in the first round of the playoffs which was played Sunday. In the first round games, #2 Tufts defeated #7 Bowdoin, #3 Wesleyan defeated #6 Conn. College, and #4 Amherst defeated #5 Williams. Just the day before Williams had defeated Amherst at Williams in Renzie Lamb's last regular season game in front of a large partisan crowd gathered at Williams to honor Renzie at a dinner that evening. We will play Amherst Saturday at Noon, Wesleyan plays Tufts at 3:00, and the championship game is Sunday at Noon. All games will be in Alumni Stadium.

Back to the weekend...after a year of planning, the "Kohn-u-mentary", actually "The Fifth Quarter: Finding Peter Kohn", was shown in front of a packed house in Dana Auditorium. The consensus was that David Gaynes did a tremendous job with the project, it was a huge hit. Jim Grube introduced the documentary, then afterwards Dave Gaynes made a few comments, then the star himself, Myron G. Kohn, stirred the crowd with some heartfelt comments.

After the video we went to Kenyon Arena for cocktails and dinner. The crowd was consisted of men's and women's alumni, parents, players, coaches and friends of the programs. A great crowd was up for the weekend, probably 200 or so. After dinner Hugh Marlow announced that Peter will be given an Alumni Appreciation Award at Reunion this year. Then Peter was brought up in front of the crowd to sing two verses of Park School and a rousing version of "Dinah Won't You Blow". For the old school alums that may not know, "Dinah" has become an integral part of the Kohn entertainment package.

Sunday's weather was a marked improvement over Saturday, so we were treated to a great Alumni Game. There were, of course, many highlights too many to list, but here are a few observations from the game. Fun to see an assisted goal between brothers Jim Reilly and Chuck Reilly. Great bravery and skill shown by goalies Ian Wolfe, Miles Lilly and Hieu Nguyen. It is one thing to be in an NBA All Star game with no defense, another to be in the cage in an Alumni Game, yelling "is anyone going to pick him up!" as some 23 year old young buck walks in on you for a 3 foot crank! Great face off match up between our trainer, Kelly Cray, and team Dr. Mark Peluso. Mark won the battle of the FO, but lost the war as he pulled his hamstring and had to sit for much of the game. Great match up all day between Zach Herbert and Jed Raymond, pretty much a draw until Jed was whining about Zach's illegal pocket after Zach schooled him!! Jed and Zach are great for throwing some "junk" in the game, though, which is what the fans pay for in an Alumni Game. Steve O'Neil gets the comeback player of the year, as he did not have to make any trips to the bushes this year. Jamie Haire and Bryan Sanchez can still run...Jamie can still talk. Dave Seeley played at times as if it were last year's NCAA Championship game. He rang up one high mph shot that would have been enough for most Alumni Game goalies to pack it in for the day. Peter Ericson's game reminded me of how much we missed him when he broke his wrist senior year. Brandon Doyle can still go coast to coast with the long pole...he can't score when he gets there, but he can still get there. Matt Dunn needs to adjust his Alumni Game style, the back-in mode that frustrated defenses the past few seasons does not sell tickets in Alumni Games, on the other hand, there was no doubt watching him and his fellow '02 grads as to why we had such a good team last year. Fellow '02 grad Peter Albro didn't score any of his patented "freak" goals, but Albro watchers did notice he still had his freakish burst of speed and quick release that would have certainly resulted in All American status were it not for injuries senior year. Dave Donahue continues his blistering Alumni Game scoring pace with his 100% shooting percentage on an impressive top shelf bounce shot. Keep your eyes open when you hear growling, Bobo is on the loose. It took Steve Monninger 3 years of coaching to improve his game enough to get in the stat column, but he broke into the stats in a big way with a goal and a victory at the face off X (never mind that his shot went in on a deflection and his face off victory was due to an illegal procedure by Scott Leach.) Speaking of Scott Leach, it looked as if he might have been putting in a little extra effort this year, possibly feeling the pressure of keeping up with younger bro' Dave, who is playing so well for us right now. Andrew Gault, bro' of senior Brian Gault, also put in his bid for older brother supremacy with some nifty Alumni Game stick handling and finishing. Dave Watts is an excellent defenseman, his short stick should stay home. Ben Fritz and Matt Wolfman don't throw the Alumni Game junk, but both could be playing for us right now with their fundamental games. Tony Trase and Mike Heffernan had a few years on most middies, but you would never know it watching them run up and down the field. I kept waiting for Grayson Fertig to break out some of his trick shots he would pull off after practice but all we could get out of him were a few one handed gb's. Jon Borgen and Greg Carroll were present for the weekend but on the DL with knee injuries. Duane Ford and Bill O'Hare made the dinner but had to leave before the game. Scott Goldman was another attendee at dinner who was unable (for reasons unspecified!) to play. Finally, in a freakishly amazing coincidence Peter Kohn once again scored the winning goal breaking a deadlock. Long-time Alumni Game followers could not remember the last time an Alumni Game had not ended in this dramatic fashion. Kohn seems to bounce off defenders and mesmerizes the goalie with his unorthodox, yet undeniably effective, style. The weekend clearly belonged to Peter Kohn.